Life… love… politics… the full catastrophe!

Sunday Sermon (Heroes)

I’ve had to work this weekend. Recently, I’ve picked up on my consulting work and my regular job is really hectic. LOL! It’s all good…

Not too long ago, I wrote a blog about white privilege and I was labeled a bigot. More recently, I wrote a blog condemning domestic violence and I was called sexist (among other things). My guess is that because I write a weekly blog on sex, I’m also perverse.

Let me just say this much: if being called a bigot, racist, sexist asshole means that it separates me from the Hordes of Unreason, then I’ll wear those labels proudly.

I’ll risk the obvious and say that if you don’t like my writing — or if you don’t like me — then kindly leave and go fuck yourself. It’s not a big thing, your feelings don’t affect me much. Just don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

Finally, if you voted for Bush, please don’t tell me! I will lose all respect for your intellect and your capacity for critical thought will be forever in doubt. I mean, like, it’s a free country and all, but personally, choosing stupidity is not a quality I look for when engaging conversation. If you voted for Bush (or, OMFG! Palin), I really don’t need to know that, OK?

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-=[ Heroes ]=-

I got into meditation in a funny way. First, I learned it when I was about 10-11 years-old from my sensei (teacher). Sensei Blair would pick kids up from the street and teach them discipline via the martial arts. He was the first person to introduce me to Eastern practices. Later, one of my favorite comic book heroes was Dr. Strange. Dr, Strange was real cool, he used to meditate a lot and he lived in the Village in a mansion…

and was an astral traveler — a master of the “black arts.” Cool!

Perhaps there are people you consider heroes. Some may be movie stars or sports players. Maybe your hero is a politician or scientist. On the other hand, you might have ordinary heroes like your parents or extraordinary heroes like Mother Teresa, Jesus, Martin Luther King, or the Dalai Lama.

Or, if you’re really fucked up, I might be one of your heroes!

Whatever the case may be, my point is that the reason someone is your hero is because he or she embodies qualities through which goodness, truth, or beauty shines. The pertinent issue in all this is that if these qualities weren’t already alive in you, then you wouldn’t resonate with them in your heroes. In other words, it takes one to know one.

To awaken is to rest as the openness in which all these heroic qualities reside. The qualities that are your nature — the potential expressions in any given moment. There is a part of you that yearns to grow, to nurture a deeper love, to develop the full potential of your heart’s gifts. Perhaps you feel a need to evolve into a translucent offering to the divine qualities that want to shine through your life.

One way to align with the calling of your heart is to relax as this openness, and imagine yourself to be your hero. Give yourself permission to drop all the tension surrounding your heart and open yourself as awareness in this moment. Actually feel (not think!) and allow yourself to be the openness that is awareness, shining as a light, vibrating like a clear bell through space… Relax as this heart-openness and visualize your hero (Jesus, The Dalai Lama, etc.). Allow the image to come closer until your body and your hero’s body become one. Wear the body of Jesus as if it were your own. Feel what it would be to breathe, sit, walk, or speak as your hero. Be thgis heart-open awareness, shining as a light, and taking the shape of your hero.

When you can feel that your are embodying all the qualities of your hero, allow this visualization to dissolve, while at the same time keeping the sense of the qualities you admire. Relax into that space, continuing to feel the truth, beauty, or goodness of your hero.

You can practice this same exercise with any hero, whether they be movie stars, athletes of world leaders. Wear, feel and express the very qualities of your heroes. This is a skill, and your skill develops, the entire process occurs almost at once. You visualize your hero, feel and merge with the form of your hero, and then dissolve as that form, remaining awake and alive shining the qualities you admire.

Whenever you feel a divine quality in a person, you can relax open as that quality, instantly, through this exercise. Then, as an expression of your life, you can offer these qualities as a gift to others, as you embody them more deeply. Eventually, you will find the visualization becomes unnecessary. Effortlessly, you become an open form of a blessing.

Relax as heart-openness itself and you can instantly offer the gifts of all your heroes.